8 Pack Solar Pathway Lights Outdoor, Bright LED Solar Landscape Lights, Waterproof Solar Garden Lights for Yard, Patio, Walkway, Lawn, Driveway(Warm White, 8 Pack)

Soft but long lasting lights
Awesome solar lights. Don’t emit bright light, but stay strong until the “wee” hours of the morning!!!

Not bad compared to competitors
Rarely do solar charged battery systems make it past my analysis without me shaking my head in disbelief. And though this product has a few issues, it’s done far better than their competitors.Being a battery and electrical engineer, products like this are torn down and tested sometimes harder than the manufacturer. So this review is tailored more towards those that want to geek out on the details.First, this uses a Li-ion form factor I was unaware of, your standard AA (14500, though you can’t swap in a rechargeable AA due to the voltage difference). Capacity wise it’s a bit lackluster, but many of these product makers use these low capacity batteries as a protection (low energy density cells normally lack the internal energy needed to reach thermal runaway if things go wrong). But this being a weird form factor, you as the consumer are very unlikely to swap the cell out for something of higher energy density.The cell itself is marked at 1.85Wh (500mAh, from experience likely underrated slightly). Testing of the solar panel, I was seeing Voc=4.502v and a Isc=56.6mA. Under load the small panel was outputting about 0.25W, meaning the panel does have the ability to fully charge the battery, assuming at least 8hrs of direct sunlight.Next let’s touch on the operational limits of the system on the battery. Li-ion cells should never be charged above 4.20v, or below 2.50v. Good systems leave some buffer on both ends, bad ones exceed both (leading to cell failure, or worse fire). This solar system employed a YX8184 controller which PWM’s the solar to the battery while also acting as a primitive BMS (but bonus, it has something).Top of charge was found to be limited to 4.227v, which exceeds the safe operational limit of this chemistry. This is low enough to keep you out of the regime where really bad stuff happens, but will result in greatly accelerated cell degradation if in a warm environment (to touch on later). Basically, if the cell is allowed to sit at these high SoC (state of charge) limits, the cell will start to lose capacity, reducing it’s cycle count.For bottom of charge, this one is critical as falling below 2.0v with this chemistry could lead to the cell internally shorting. In this case my testing showed a shutdown at 2.78v, which is a little lower than I’d want, but a pass none the less.As current doesn’t need controlled (the solar panel at best can charge the cell at 1/7C, this one isn’t important. The chip itself does have a current protection, but only kicks in if the system is shorted out. At that point, the product is dead anyway. So a pass, though not needed in this application.The last is thermal protections. Li-ion cells should only be charged from 0-45C (32-113F). Charging in cold temperatures leads to conditions that can short out the cell where hot charging will reduce the capacity of the cell. This product has NO thermal protection, so if there’s sun and the cell voltage is below the cutoff limit, it’ll charge. Again, the makers of such products rely on the very low capacity of the cells used to act as a fire protection, so corners like thermal management can be cut. The issue you find with products like this is they’re exposed to sunlight all day, meaning the cells get hot. You can’t avoid this as the product would need to be taken out of the sun which means it doesn’t charge. So those hot summer days will slowly kill the cell. You could cover these lights in sub-freezing temps to at least protect the cell from cold temperature damage if you wished.Light output is… OK. Power consumption from the LED’s was 17mA. So that’s a peak of just under 0.1W. So this thing clearly isn’t very bright. But doing the math, runtime is estimated at BoL (beginning of life), assuming fully charged of about 20hrs. In my runtime testing, these lights were the only ones to still be on over a full winter night. Pro or a con based on your needs. Do note, the light is more a spot below it, not a flood like most lawn lights on the market.Overall these did ok, and miles better then their competitors. The light output of these must be considered for specific applications. If your use case aligns, this wouldn’t be a bad option for that. This product could be better, but it’s miles better than the alternatives out there.

Gorgeous
Beautiful design and very bright. Highly recommend.